Ned M. Barnes Northwest Room

The Northwest Room will close to the public on February 14, 2020 through 2021 for Downtown Library renovation. When the Downtown Library reopens in late 2021/early 2022 it will include an enhanced Northwest Room experience on the 3rd floor with a focus on the Inland Northwest. Learn more about the Downtown Library renovation and our other library renovation projects at future.spokanelibrary.org.

Northwest Room materials are not available to the public during renovation, but customers can continue to access digitized Northwest Room materials below.

For over 100 years, librarians at SPL clipped the newspapers for biographical information.
These clippings include obituaries on pioneers, but they also contain all kinds of biographical information from papers in Spokane and around the Northwest.